Formed in 1988 by the Early Music Network of Great Britain, the Orlando Consort rapidly achieved a reputation as one of Europe’s most expert and consistently challenging groups performing repertoire from the years 1050 to 1550. Their unique imagination and originality of their programming together with their superb vocal skills has marked the Consort as outstanding leaders of their field. The Consort has performed at many of Britain’s top festivals and has in recent years made visits to France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the U.S. and Canada, South America, Singapore, Japan, Greece, Russia, Austria, Slovenia, Portugal, and Spain.
The Consort’s discography for Saydisc, Metronome, Linn, Deutsche Grammophon, and Harmonia Mundi U.S. includes a collection of music by John Dunstaple and The Call of the Phoenix, which were selected as Early Music CDs of the Year by Gramophone. Their CDs of music by Compère, Machaut, Ockeghem, Josquin, Popes and Anti- Popes, Saracen and Dove, and Passion have also been short-listed. Their 2008 release of Machaut’s Messe de Notre Dame and Scattered Rhymes, a new work by the British composer Tarik O’Regan and featuring the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, was short-listed for a BBC Music Magazine Award.
The Consort is currently pursuing an epic project to record all the songs of Guillaume de Machaut for Hyperion; the first release Le Voir Dit was selected by The New York Times’ critics as one of their favorite classical CD releases of 2013 and has since been followed by eight much-praised recordings. Also on the Hyperion label is an anthology of music by Loyset Compère, a survey of 14th-century English music, songs by Guillaume Dufay, and a survey of Florentine Renaissance music.
The Consort has performed over 30 world premieres and has created collaborations with the jazz group Perfect Houseplants and with the tabla player Kuljit Bhamra for a project exploring historic Portuguese and Goan music.
In June 2023, the Consort will cease performing. For their final season, they will appear in Spain, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, the U.S., Canada, Luxembourg, Germany, and the U.K.
